Art Hostage has learnt that William Youngworth has been put in the frame for having access to the Eagle which a reward was offered for earlier this year. The $100,000 reward has been made in an attempt to get William Youngworth to reveal the whereabouts of the Eagle.
The alleged back story is one of Robert (Bobby) Donati, whom Myles Connor alleged to be one of the Gardner art heist thieves, perhaps the driver who was outside the Gardner Museum in the car, stole the Ku bronze vase and Eagle as a gift for Myles Connor knowing of his interest in things Oriental and interest in history?
Whilst Miles Connor was in Jail it is also alleged William Youngworth was tasked to hold all of the art collection of Miles Connor, including any Gardner artworks, which William Youngworth duly did.

Myles Connors

Furthermore, it is alleged William Youngworth sold most of the Myles Connor art collection, not the alleged Gardner artworks, whilst Myles Connors was in jail and this led to falling out between William Youngworth and Myles Connor.
Therefore, back in the late 1990's when William Youngworth stepped forward and offered to recover some of the Gardner art he had access to some Gardner art, the bronze vase, Eagle and possibly some lesser valued artworks such as the Degas drawings? William Youngworth has always maintained he could recover some of the Gardner art if he was offered full immunity and had public guarantees of the reward being paid.
Perhaps this could be the latest attempt to offer up some Gardner artworks and claim the reward as well as try to hide behind the offer of immunity?
A friend of William Youngworths has been trying to act as a broker to get the Eagle back this year and things are allegedly ongoing .
It will be interesting to see if indeed any Gardner artworks, Eagle, Ku bronze vase, Degas drawings, as lesser valued Gardner artworks, are recovered and how the FBI, Prosecutors and Museum respond?

Allegedly, William Youngworth Had Antiques Business Nearby Where Gardner Museum Security Guard Richard Abath Lived At The Time Of Gardner Art Heist 1990 !!

Art Hostage was told a long time ago that Richard Abath, the security guard on duty the night of the Gardner art Heist has been under close scrutiny by the FBI for a long time and has had his every movement monitored in a similar vain to that of Robert Gentile.
The FBI was also instrumental in getting the reward offer for the Eagle of $100,000 publicly released earlier this year in the hope Richard Abath would seek out to claim the reward via a proxy.
The FBI has also tried to put in undercover proxies to try and smoke out Richard Abath in a similar vain to Robert Gentile.
It is alleged that the Gardner museum was robbed twice on that fateful night, first by Richard Abath and his friends, or Richard Abath stole the Eagle etc and put them outside the museum in a rubbish sack, before the two thieves dressed as Police turned up. The Eagle, bronze Ku vase, as well as possibly several drawings and maybe the Monet were taken by the friends of Richard Abath and the hope was to blame the actual thieves who later arrived with their theft.
After all these years FBI have been using all their resources to try and trap Richard Abath and there is a possibility Richard Abath may face arrest shortly?
Richard Abath has thwarted all attempts thus far to bite, but maybe, just maybe we will hear of breaking news shortly.
There was a rumour that the Eagle had been recovered but that goes along with the rumour that one or more of the drawings had been recovered years ago.

Federal
authorities have released new evidence in the notorious burglary of
Boston’s Isabella Stewart Gardener Museum ­— footage of an unauthorised
person entering the museum through the same doors as the thieves, but 24
hours before the $500 million in paintings were stolen.
Investigators
hope that, even 25 years later, the public can help them identify the
person or the automobile seen in the video that night, and they are
offering a $5 million reward for information leading directly to the
recovery of all of the missing artworks.
The low-resolution
surveillance video shows a vehicle pull up to the museum’s rear entrance
and an unidentified man walking out of the automobile and being let
into the museum by a security guard. Federal investigators say the
automobile matches the general description of the vehicle seen moments
before the theft on March 18, 1990.
“Over many months we have
engaged in an exhaustive re-examination of the original evidence in this
case. Our aim has been to ensure that all avenues have been explored in
the continuing quest to recover these artworks,” U.S. Attorney Carmen
Ortiz said in a statement.
The footage was captured at 12:49 p.m.
on March 17, 1990, almost exactly 24 hours before the thieves entered
the museum through the same door.
“Today we are releasing video
images from the night before the theft — images which have not
previously been seen by the public — with the hope of identifying an
unauthorised visitor to the museum,” Ortiz said. “With the public’s
help, we may be able to develop new information that could lead to the
recovery of these invaluable works of art.”
Two white men dressed
as Boston police officers walked into the museum, handcuffed the
security guards, and pilfered 13 paintings worth an estimated $500
million by names like Vermeer, Rembrandt, Degas and Manet. While the
thieves took with them the security tapes from that night, they did not
steal the tapes from the previous night, which investigators hope could
break open the case.
No one has been charged in connection with
the theft, and none of the paintings have been found. In 2013, the FBI
said members of an East Coast crime organisation orchestrated the daring
theft and then tried selling a share of their $500 million haul in
Philadelphia a decade ago but they refused to divulge names.
Prosecutors
have long suspected Robert Gentile, an ageing reputed Connecticut
mobster, has information on the heist. Prosecutors revealed in a court
hearing on unrelated weapons charges earlier this year that Gentile was
caught on surveillance discussing the whereabouts of two of the stolen
paintings with an undercover FBI agent and how much he could get for
them. Gentile has repeatedly denied knowing anything about the heist.

Portland may play role in solving mystery of 1990 Boston art heist

The FBI suspects that a
mobster transferred some of the 13 stolen paintings from the Isabella
Stewart Gardner Museum to an associate outside a local seafood
restaurant in 2003.

By Stephen Kurkjian

BOSTON — Although more than 100 miles away from where the
masterpieces were stolen, FBI investigators believe that Portland plays a
central role in solving the 25-year mystery of what remains the largest
art heist in world history: the theft of artwork from the Isabella
Stewart Gardner Museum.
Specifically, investigators are interested in what took place at a
Portland seafood restaurant where Robert F. Guarente and Robert V.
Gentile, two aging criminal associates who had long been friends, sat
down with their wives in 2003 to enjoy lunch.

SUMMER HOME in BELGRADE LAKES WAS ALSO ON FBI'S RADAR

It might be the strongest one, but the Portland meeting between
Gentile and Guarente is not the only lead that federal agents have in
pursued in Maine in trying to crack the Gardner case.
Soon after the theft, the agents received word that Joseph Murray of
Boston, who owned a summer home on the shore of the Great Lake in
Belgrade Lakes, might have gotten hold of the stolen artwork.
Murray, who worked as a typesetter for both the Boston Herald and The
Boston Globe, had strong ties to the Irish Republican Army. A retired
FBI agent who knew Murray told me that he often wondered if Murray might
have hidden the artwork in the large garage adjacent to his home that
he had gotten local approval to build.
I couldn’t find any signs of such hideaways when I toured the
property with the current owner, who bought the house after Murray was
shot to death there by his wife in 1992, following an argument turned
violent.– Stephen Kurkjian

about the author

Stephen Kurkjian, a veteran Boston Globe
investigative reporter, will talk about his recently published book on
the Gardner theft, “Master Thieves: The Boston Gangsters Who Pulled Off
the World’s Greatest Art Heist,” at 7 p.m. Thursday at Longfellow Books
in Portland.

During their chit-chat, Guarente, who’d been freed from federal
prison on a cocaine trafficking conviction the year before, told the
Gentiles that he was dying of cancer and he was living his last days at
his home in the central Maine town of Madison.
Years later, Gentile (who couldn’t recall the restaurant’s name) and
Guarente’s widow agreed that she had ordered twin lobsters for lunch,
but they had contradictory accounts on what had taken place after they
had finished their meals. Elene Guarente told FBI agents in 2010 that
the two men went into the restaurant’s parking lots and her husband
opened the trunk of their car and handed over two or three paintings to
Gentile.
Although she was fuzzy on some details, Elene Guarente said she
believed the paintings were among the 13 pieces of art stolen from the
Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in 1990 and that they had long been held
by her late husband at their home in Madison.
Although FBI agents have worked tirelessly chasing down hundreds of
leads in the 25 years since the paintings were stolen, what Elene
Guarente told them had taken place at the Portland restaurant remains
the best tip investigator say they’ve received.
Elene Guarente, who still lives in Maine, was unsure why her husband
had given Gentile the paintings – perhaps for safekeeping by Gentile or
to turn over to another criminal associate. But she told the agents –
and later a federal grand jury – that Gentile had placed the paintings
in the trunk of his car and driven off with his wife back to their home
outside Hartford.
Federal agents soon found reason to be heartened by what Elene
Guarente had told them. When confronted with her account, Gentile
acknowledged that he had in the past conversed with her husband about
the Gardner theft and the two had schemed on how they might assist in
getting back the stolen artwork and securing the $5 million reward that
the museum offered for their recovery.
Later, the agents found, in the basement of Gentile’s home, a
handwritten note on a sheet of typewriter paper that set out what each
of the stolen pieces might bring on the black market.
Gentile insisted that it all amounted to empty talk between two old
criminal associates and he never had gotten any paintings from Guarente
after their lunch at the Portland restaurant. Nor did he know or believe
that his old pal, Guarente, had the stolen Gardner paintings. The
authorities, however, continue to believe Elene Guarente’s account and
treat her version of the events at the Portland restaurant as the
biggest break in the case.
But their efforts to gain a confession from Gentile have failed,
though they charged him with involvement in criminal activity in 2012
and again this March. He is now on trial on charges he violated the
terms of parole by meeting with other mobsters as well as selling a
loaded pistol to a former convict.
Now 79, Gentile told a federal judge at a recent hearing that he
believes he will die in prison because he is incapable of complying with
federal prosecutors’ demands that he turn over the paintings stolen in
1990.

The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Art Heist And The Connecticut

In
1990, two men dressed as police officers walked into the Isabella
Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, overwhelmed two security guards, and
walked out with 13 valuable pieces of art, including masterpieces by
Rembrandt and Vermeer.
For 25 years the FBI, the Boston Police,
and many journalists have interviewed suspects and investigated tips in
hopes of solving the case. The museum has offered a $5 million reward
for the return of all the stolen pieces.
But the art works are still missing. And no one has ever been arrested in the case.
The heist remains the largest art theft in U.S. history. The works stolen are valued at $500 million.
Stephen
Kurkjian has investigating the Gardner Museum theft for about 18 years.
He started working on the case as a journalist for the Boston Globe.
He’s just published a book called Master Thieves. The book examines the
people potentially connected with the heist and the FBI’s theory of what
happened. Kurkjian says the FBI believes a criminal network that runs
from Boston to Maine and even to Hartford is responsible for the theft.

Thieves
took "Storm on the Sea of Galilee,” by Rembrandt, which once hung on
the wall in the left background and "The Concert," by Vermeer, which
once occupied the frame in the right foreground. The empty frames remain
on display at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston.

Credit (AP Photo/Josh Reynolds, File)

INTERVIEW EXCERPTS:Your
book highlights a broad cast of characters and includes a complicated
network of low and high level criminals as well as two rival crime
families.
I think that's at the center of the of
this perplexing mystery. There were two gangs in the Boston area that
knew of the vulnerability of the museum back as far as the late 70s and
early 80s. These two gangs went at each other in a war because the
control of the Boston underworld had become open with the death of
Raymond Patriarca who was the gangland "uberboss" of all of New England.
So that opened it up to two gangs, one overseen by a gang leader named
Frank Salemme and another one overseen by newer, younger, much more
aggressive men that sprung out of the North End of Boston. The FBI looks
to the Salemme gang. In my research, I was able to make inroads into
the second gang, and there I got the "eureka" moment in which I found
out who in that gang knew of the museum's vulnerability and why they had
the motive to break in.You say finding a motive for
the robbery really narrows down the field of suspects. Isn't that
something that investigators should figure out fairly soon in the
investigation?
You would think. But I think it was
because the FBI got so overwhelmed with tips and information that came,
for the most part if not solely, from fraudsters and con men seeking to
get money out of the museum. They had to chase down everyone of these
leads. I was told by the FBI lead agent in the case in 2010 that they
had yet to have a confirmed proof of life sighting of any of the 13
pieces. And what that means is they have never gotten a photograph of
any of the pieces, or a forensic piece of evidence of any of the pieces.
That told me that the FBI was working very diligently, but they got a
center where they felt the were right on it. So frustrating, but I think
it's at the core as to why this case has never been solved.

Law
enforcement agents search the yard at the home of reputed Connecticut
mobster Robert Gentile in Manchester, Connecticut, Thursday, May 10,
2012.

Credit (AP Photo/Jessica Hill)

There's some reason to believe that some or all of the art work was hidden for a time in Manchester, Connecticut.
Bobby
Gentile is an aging mob associate. The FBI believed he was involved
because of the testimony of the widow of his best friend who said that
before her husband had passed away in 2004 he had given two or three of
the paintings to Bobby Gentile. And Bobby Gentile had hidden them in his
home somewhere in the shed in his backyard in Connecticut. When the FBI
first approached Bobby Gentile in 2010 he agreed to cooperate, but that
stopped in 2012. And then in 2014 the feds sent an undercover agent, an
old pal of Bobby Gentile They talked about a crime that the old pal
wanted Bobby to get involved in. Bobby fell into the trap. He said, "if
you let me into this scheme you've got planned I'll sell you two of the
paintings for half a million dollars." In my heart of hearts I don't
think Bobby can get us back the paintings, but the feds are not
convinced of that.

Convicted leader of New Jersey crime family who inspired Tony
Soprano has died aged 90, marking 'the end of a mobster generation'

But detectives say he was a beloved figure, unlike fictional Tony Soprano

The convicted leader of a New Jersey crime family who inspired The Sopranos TV show has died.

John
M Riggi, 90, ran the DeCavalcante crime family for more than two
decades - even ordering murders and receiving payments while in prison
for extortion and murder.

Under his ruthless rule, the gang developed labor racketeering into an art form, crime experts say.

But unlike the character Tony Soprano, played by the late James Gandolfini, he was also a beloved member of the community.

Archetypal mobster: John M Riggi took
the helm of the DeCavalcante crime family in 1988 and 'turned labor
racketeering into an art form'. He ordered murders from behind bars but
was beloved in the community

Inspired: Riggi was supposedly the inspiration for James Gandolfini's character Tony Soprano in the hit show

Robert Boccino, former deputy chief of the State Organised Crime Bureau, told NJ.com:
'He wasn't Tony Soprano. Absolutely he was no Tony Soprano. The people
in Elizabeth loved him. Nobody would co-operate – that was the problem.
He was respected.'

And the effect he had on other prisoners was astounding, Boccino said as he reminisced about arresting Riggi in the 1980s.

'All
the others we took in that morning put on the arrest suit – sweats and
sneakers. But when we brought him into the holding cell and he walked
in, they all stood up. He was an impressive guy.'

Riggi's death, according to retired detectives, marks the end of a generation.

He died on Monday at his home in Edison, Corsentino Home for Funerals said. A cause of death wasn't disclosed.

Officially, he was the longtime business agent for Local 394 of the Laborers International Union of North America.

But behinds the scenes, he was one of the East Coast's most notorious and feared mobsters.

He
was acting chief from about the mid-1970s to the mid-1980s. From the
moment he took the helm in 1988, Riggi's family wielded its power over
labor unions.

Officials also noted that he was known for supporting community groups and charities.

In
September 2003, Riggi admitted his role in the 1989 murder of a Staten
Island businessman that prosecutors said was supposedly carried out as a
favor to John Gotti, the former head of the Gambino crime family.

They
said evidence at prior trials showed Riggi believed the slaying would
improve the Decavalcante's position among mob families.

Sopranos
creator David Chase has said he drew inspiration for the HBO show
partly from crime families including the DeCavalcantes.